The silent, empty rooms inside the largest abortion facility in Oklahoma mean babies’ lives are being saved from abortion every day.
Late last month, Oklahoma became the first state since 1973 to enforce a law that bans the killing of unborn babies in abortions. Though pro-abortion groups have sued to block the law, many expect their lawsuit will fail, and Oklahoma will continue to protect unborn babies from abortion.
In an article over the weekend, The Washington Post described the current atmosphere at what was once Oklahoma’s busiest abortion facility, the Tulsa Women’s Clinic.
The abortion facility aborted nearly 5,000 unborn babies last year, but it stopped doing abortions last month when the new law went into effect.
“I’m so sorry,” nurse Tiffany Taylor tells women who walk in through their doors, according to the report. “But there’s this new law.”
Follow LifeNews on the Parler social media network for the latest pro-life news!
The staff told the newspaper that they began canceling appointments in early May after the legislature passed a heartbeat law, which bans abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. A few weeks later, state lawmakers passed another pro-life law that bans all abortions; exceptions are allowed for rape, incest or threats to the mother’s life.
Until recently, Andrea Gallegos, the clinic’s executive administrator, said they were very busy doing abortions for Texas women who came across the border. Since September, Texas has been enforcing its heartbeat law, which bans abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.
In May, however, her abortion facility canceled 60 abortion appointments, and they are no longer getting hundreds of phone calls every day, according to the newspaper.
Gallegos complained that Texas and Oklahoma women who want abortions now have even fewer options.
Some may travel to New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado or Arizona, but others will have their babies instead. Pro-life advocates are working to expand support services for these women through pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, medical assistance programs and more. They also are offering to help abortion workers quit and find good jobs that actually help people.
But the abortion industry is trying to thwart these efforts.
According to the newspaper:
Trust Women is determined to stay open even if they can’t provide abortions, said Zack Gingrich-Gaylord, the clinic’s communications director – in part because they don’t want to see a crisis pregnancy center move into their building.
“Sticking around,” he said, is an “act of defiance.”
Before Texas enacted its abortion law, Trust Women offered other reproductive health care in addition to abortions, including birth control, STD testing and gender-affirming care, Gingrich-Gaylord said. If they are no longer able to provide abortions, he said, he imagines they’ll focus on those services, while their abortion providers shift over to the clinic’s other location in Kansas.
The empty waiting rooms and dead phone lines suggest abortion is the main business of Tulsa Women’s Clinic. Gallegos admitted that they cannot afford to stay open if they just do sonograms and abortion referrals – meaning killing unborn babies in abortions is the big money-maker.
Staffers said they probably will close completely if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer, as is expected. Or they may re-locate to a Democrat-led state where abortions are likely to remain legal.
Either way, what is apparent is that pro-life efforts are working and mothers and babies are being saved from abortion every day in Oklahoma.
All across the country, state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of pro-life bills this year in anticipation that the Supreme Court could overturn Roe. Since 1973, states have been forced to legalize abortions without limits up to viability, and more than 63.5 million unborn babies have been killed.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates 26 states “are certain or likely to ban abortions” if the Supreme Court gets rid of Roe. And researchers estimated that abortion numbers would drop by about 120,000 in the first year and potentially even more in subsequent years if the high court allows states to ban abortions again.
